Bike Database

4.
A) Two IT features of a smart card are that they contain a built-in processor and are programmable, and smart cards have secure storage for data including private keys. They can be used to open doors.

B) The process to authenticate the cyclist when collecting a bike would be for the cyclist to insert or have the rack scan their smart card. The information from the card would be taken, and then the cyclist would enter their PIN or secret code, and If this matched the information on the card, then the persons account would be charged for the bike and the bike would be released. The information of the bike that was taken would be recorded by the machine. The cyclist would then take the bike and ride away.

C) The benefits of using a relational database instead of a flat-file database would be the database would be able to match the bike number with the rental and then the person who rented the bike. This would save time in seeing who took the bike because instead of looking through the flat file database and trying to find databases, the relationships could be queried and the results would appear. This is much more efficient, and it also allows the Bike and Rental and People to be on different pages, which would cause less confusion. It is much easier to query and find the information than use a flat file database and have to search yourself.

D) There are many privacy and security concerns that could arise through the use of the database to record bike rentals, which relate to the credit card number of the cyclist being in the database, the location of the cyclist being known, and the security of a smart card. A security concern arises from the credit card number of the cyclist being recorded in the database along with his name. If the database is hacked, not only the credit card number will be stolen but also the name of the person would be known. They would know who they were stealing from, and this could cause targeted hacks looking for the credit card number of a certain person. This could result in black mail or the loss of money by the cyclist. The privacy and security of the cyclist is also risked when his information is put in the database, because the location and bike number that he used is known and recorded. Therefore, his approximate location is known. If a person wanted to know the persons location they could hack the database and easily find it out. The government could also use this to track the location of its citizens by seeing where they get their bikes and return them, and this could be used to track them. Also, a security concern that your account could be used by another person arises from the use of a smart card to rent your bike. The smart card could be lost and taken by another person, or your card could be copied or manufactured by another person. They could then rent bikes at your expense, and not return them causing your account to be charged with the late fees. All in all, the security and privacy concerns that stem from the use of a database to hold the cyclists information are numerous, and the cyclist is exposing themselves to a lot of danger by joining this service and giving the bike company their information.